Monday, 28 July 2014

Online publishing method

ABSTRACT

The present invention is an online publishing management system and method that includes at least one advertisement computer means for storing an advertisement file; at least one article computer means for storing an article file; and a publishing management server computer. The publishing management server computer includes user interface means for receiving data from and sending data to user, database means for storing a plurality of database tables, and processing means. The database tables include an advertisement table having a plurality of advertisement records, each advertisement record having information regarding an advertisement file stored on an advertisement computer means; an advertiser table having a plurality of advertiser records, each advertiser record having information regarding an advertiser associated with at least one advertisement file stored on an advertisement computer means; and an article table having a plurality of article records, each article record having information regarding an article file stored on an article computer means. The processing means is adapted to generate a plurality of reports as a function of one or more of the database tables; allow a user to input, via the user interface means, criteria for generating the reports; provide the reports to a user via the user interface means; and allow a user to enter or modify, via the user interface means, records in any of the database tables.

IMAGES(11)

CLAIMS(21)

1. An online publishing management system comprising

A) at least one advertisement computer means for storing an advertisement file;

B) at least one article computer means for storing an article file; and

C) a publishing management server computer comprising:

(i) user interface means for receiving data from and sending data to a user;

a) an advertisement table comprising a plurality of advertisement records, each advertisement record comprising information regarding an advertisement file stored on an advertisement computer means;

b) an advertiser table comprising a plurality of advertiser records, each advertiser record comprising information regarding an advertiser associated with at least one advertisement file stored on an advertisement computer means;

c) an article table comprising a plurality of article records, each article record comprising information regarding an article file stored on an article computer means; and

(iii) processing means adapted to:

a) generate a plurality of reports as a function of one or more of the database tables;

b) allow a user to input, via the user interface means, criteria for generating the reports;

c) provide the reports to a user via the user interface means; and

d) allow a user to enter or modify, via the user interface means, records in any of the database tables.

2. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the database tables further comprise:

d) an author table comprising a plurality of author records, each author record comprising information regarding an author associated with at least one article file stored on an article computer means.

3. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the database tables further comprise:

e) a partner table comprising a plurality of partner records, each partner record comprising information regarding a partner of the system.

4. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the database tables further comprise:

e) a subscriber table comprising a plurality of subscriber records, each subscriber record comprising information regarding a subscriber of the system.

5. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the processing means is further adapted to generate a composite article for publication to a subscriber; the composite article comprising an article file and at least one advertisement reference associated therewith.

6. The online publishing management system of claim 5 wherein the composite article is in HTML code, and wherein the associated advertisement reference is a resource locator of an advertisement associated with the composite article.

7. The online publishing management system of claim 6 wherein the resource locator of the associated advertisement is a URL.

8. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the advertisement records each comprise an advertisement description field, a start field, an end field, an advertisement resource locator indicative of the location of the advertisement, a partner site permission field indicative of partner sites with which the advertisement may be displayed, and an article field indicative of the articles with which the advertisement has been associated.

9. The online publishing management system of claim 8 wherein the article field indicates a display position within the article that the advertisement will be displayed.

10. The online publishing management system of claim 8 wherein the advertisement record further comprises the advertisement file.

11. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the article records each comprise an article description field, an article resource locator indicative of the location of the article, an active/inactive field indicating if the article is currently active, and a table of contents field indicating if the article should be included in a table of contents file.

12. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the article records further comprise an advertisement display position field indicative of locations in the article in which an advertisement may be inserted.

13. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the article records further comprise an author field.

14. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the article records further comprise a topic field indicative of the subject matter of the article.

15. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the article records further comprise a partner site filed indicative of partner sites on which the article may be associated.

16. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the reports generated by the processing means comprise an advertiser contract report comprising a list of contract records for an advertiser of the system, the contract records comprising a description of the advertiser, a description of the advertisement associated with the advertiser, a field indicative of the start date and the end date of the advertisement, and a filed indicating an article that the advertisement is associated with and the display position within that article.

17. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the reports generated by the processing means comprise an advertiser lead report comprising a list of advertiser lead records, each advertiser lead record comprising an identification of a subscriber, a list of articles previously accessed by that subscriber within a defined time period, and a list of advertisements associated with those articles previously accessed by that subscriber within a defined time period.

18. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the reports generated by the processing means comprise an article usage report comprising a list of articles and the number of subscribers that accessed each article in a given time period.

19. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein the reports generated by the processing means comprise an article activity report comprising a list of articles and activity statistics, the activity statistics comprising the number of times the article was viewed, the number of times the article was printed, and the number of times the article was emailed.

20. The online publishing management system of claim 1 wherein at least one advertisement computer means for storing an advertisement file is located on the publishing management server computer.

21-46. (canceled)

DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an online and print publishing management system that allows users to integrate publishing management functions, such as report generation, via the Internet.

Currently, many publishers are experimenting with Web sites offering news and banner ads. Many are finding that these sites increase subscription solicitation costs by making it too easy for readers to get news without subscribing, and are failing to generate significant revenue because of drawbacks with the banner ad/clickthrough model. Most publishers outside of the computer software business that have experimented with generating transaction fees on e-commerce sales have failed to generate significant revenues through commissions.

In addition, publishers already manage myriad functions on separate software platforms that don't talk to one another. This makes it even more difficult to undertake Web ventures, because it is already time-consuming enough for separate publishing divisions to manage and get real-time information about advertisers, contracts and advertisements; content, authors, and copyrights; subscribers and renewal notices; reader surveys, and buyers' guides.

It is therefore desired to provide a system that allows an authorized manager to manage all aspects of print and Internet publishing on a single Web-based platform and get critical, real-time information about any functional area.

Many brick and mortar companies with Web sites are frustrated with the inability to know who actually visits their Web sites and are seeking to use the Internet as a database, relationship-building tool. The present invention makes it affordable for almost any size company to create a buyer's catalogue along with a special, registration-only portion of their Web site that uses content, special pricing, incentives, etc., to get people to register to receive future offers and newsletters by print or e-mail.

Any organization that has even a single Web site, newspaper, magazine or newsletter can benefit from the present invention, and the more newspapers, newsletters and magazines, and Web sites published, the more it can benefit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is an online publishing management system that includes at least one advertisement computer means for storing an advertisement file; at least one article computer means for storing an article file; and a publishing management server computer. The publishing management server computer includes user interface means for receiving data from and sending data to a user, database means for storing a plurality of database tables, and processing means. The database tables include an advertisement table having a plurality of advertisement records, each advertisement record having information regarding an advertisement file stored on an advertisement computer means; an advertiser table having a plurality of advertiser records, each advertiser record having information regarding an advertiser associated with at least one advertisement file stored on an advertisement computer means; and an article table having a plurality of article records, each article record having information regarding an article file stored on an article computer means. The processing means is adapted to generate a plurality of reports as a function of one or more of the database tables; allow a user to input, via the user interface means, criteria for generating the reports; provide the reports to a user via the user interface means; and allow a user to enter or modify, via the user interface means, records in any of the database tables.

Additionally, the database tables may further include an author table having a plurality of author records, each author record having information regarding an author associated with at least one article file stored on an article computer means.

The database tables may also include a partner table having a plurality of partner records, each partner record having information regarding a partner of the system, and/or a subscriber table having a plurality of subscriber records, each subscriber record having information regarding a subscriber of the system.

The processing means may be further adapted to generate a composite article for publication to a subscriber; the composite article comprising an article file and at least one advertisement reference associated therewith. In this event, the composite article may be in HTML code, and the associated advertisement reference is a resource locator (e.g. a URL) of an advertisement associated with the composite article.

The reports generated by the processing means may include an advertiser contract report having a list of contract records for an advertiser of the system, the contract records including a description of the advertiser, a description of the advertisement associated with the advertiser, a field indicative of the start date and the end date of the advertisement, and a field indicating an article that the advertisement is associated with and the display position within that article.

The reports generated by the processing means may include an advertiser lead report including a list of advertiser lead records, each advertiser lead record having an identification of a subscriber, a list of articles previously accessed by that subscriber within a defined time period, and a list of advertisements associated with those articles previously accessed by that subscriber within a defined time period.

The reports generated by the processing means may also include an article usage report having a list of articles and the number of subscribers that accessed each article in a given time period. The reports may also include an article activity report having a list of articles and activity statistics, the activity statistics including the number of times the article was viewed, the number of times the article was printed, and the number of times the article was emailed.

In addition, improvements include the ability to track print (as well as Internet) advertisers, advertisements, advertising contracts, content, authors, and copyrights on the same above platform; to share information between departments, so that editors can see what advertisements look like before placing editorials; the marketing department can get easy access to subscriber and advertiser databases; the sales department can quickly see what ads are in inventory or how many subscribers meet specific buying criteria, etc. Improvements also include the ability to easily exchange databases or portions of databases between publishing partners; to automatically bill and notify sales management and both Internet and print advertisers when contracts expire; and to enable credit-card based access to detailed information, such as car repair manuals. The system will track archived print (along with Internet) articles in a format ready for resale or reuse via print or Internet applications; track forward bookings of advertising space; manage and track author/freelance payments; integrate advertiser information with popular sales contact management programs; integrate print and Internet publication subscriber databases; and manage digitized radio, television, and streaming video advertising on the same above platform.

Moreover, the invention can track the names and full demographic information of people who click from banner ads to Web sites.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system topology of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a dataflow diagram that shows the relationships between the various tables utilized by the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a data flowchart that shows the initial contact and redirection steps;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart that shows the advertising display steps;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart that shows the click recording steps;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart that shows the table of contents display steps;

FIG. 7 is the web page for Add or Find an Advertiser;

FIG. 8 is the web page for Add an Advertiser;

FIG. 9 is an example of an Advertiser Contract Report;

FIG. 10 is an example of an Article Usage Report.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention is a system that provides for print and Internet publishers to develop any content-driven or e-commerce Web strategy in a way that works with the printed products. The invention makes it easy to control on a single, easy-to-use platform every element of Internet publishing in a way that meshes cleanly with a print operation, including:

1) archiving searchable content by topics, including when it ran, where it ran (both in print and Internet publications), and other data including authors and copyright information and syndication information;

2) making it easy to place and track banner and display advertising so that advertisers can have ads adjacent to related news or other topics;

3) maintaining registered-user accesses or subscriptions (unpaid or paid), and easily tracking precise registered or nonregistered accesses to each article, including the identity of those who printed or e-mailed articles to colleagues;

4) maintaining online, searchable databases of products, services, calendars, resources, etc. that can be used for e-commerce or promoting e-commerce of the advertisers;

7) enable advertisers to electronically access own advertising reports, including demographics of article readership or even the names of the readers, if desired.

Referring to FIG. 1, the system of the present invention (commercial name “Press2Web”) is shown in top level block diagram format. A network 100, such as the Internet, is used to allow communication between various computers that are interconnected thereto. A publishing management server 102 contains a database of tables 104 that are linked as described herein; these tables contain the various data records that relate to users, subscribers, advertisers, advertisements, authors, and the like. Authorized users such as system administrators may be given access to the management server 102 over the Internet to allow entry of data into the appropriate tables, editing of records, as well as report generation to be described herein.

FIG. 1 also illustrates an article server(s) 108, which are used to store the various articles that are published by the system. Importantly, the articles may reside anywhere in the system (including on the management server), as long as they can be referenced by a resource locator such as a URL for publication. Likewise, an advertisement server(s) 110 is accessed by the system, and is used to store the advertisement files that are published along with the articles.

FIG. 1 also illustrates user computer(s) 106, wherein the users may be readers (subscribers) that will obtain the publications as desired. The management system tracks the users, the articles read, etc. to aid in report generation in accordance with this invention.

When a user logs onto the administrative web site hosted by the publishing management server 102, he is presented with a main web page that provides several groups of navigational buttons labeled MAIN TABLES, REPORTS, OTHER TABLES, CATALOG, and SYSTEM.

Main Tables

The MAIN TABLES navigational buttons include Advertisers, Articles, Authors, Partners, and Subscribers. Selection of the Advertisers button provides an Advertiser web page that allows the user to add or find a certain advertiser on the appropriate database table, as shown in FIG. 7. Selection of an “Add Advertiser” button 802 provides a web page as shown in FIG. 8 that allows the user to enter information on a new advertiser, such as name, address, email, phone number, etc., which will be added to the advertiser database table. In the alternative, the user may search the database for an existing advertiser record by entering various search criteria into the form (e.g. name, email address, company name) and returning the web page to the server via search button 804, which will perform the search and provide the appropriate results.

Selection of the Articles button provides a web page that allows the user to add or find a certain article on the appropriate database table. Selection of an “Add An Article” button provides a web page that allows the user to enter information on a new article, such as title, URL (location of article on the web), copyright information, summary of article, whether it is to be included in a Table of Contents, and whether an ID will be required for access by a reader, which will be added to the article database table. In the alternative, the user may search the database for an existing article record by entering various search criteria into the form (e.g. title, URL, or ID number)) and returning the web page to the server, which will perform the search and provide the appropriate results. This functionality is similar to the functionality described for Advertisers above, with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

Selection of the Authors button provides a web page that allows the user to add or find a certain author on the appropriate database table. Selection of an “Add Author” button provides a web page that allows the user to enter information on a new author, such as name, address, email, phone number, the URL of a photo, and biography information, which will be added to the advertiser database table. In the alternative, the user may search the database for an existing author record by entering various search criteria into the form (e.g. name, email address) and returning the web page to the server, which will perform the search and provide the appropriate results. This functionality is similar to the functionality described for Advertisers above, with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

Similarly, the user may select a Partner button or a Subscriber button, each of which will provide web pages for searching or adding partners or subscribers in the same manner as described above.

Reports

The REPORTS navigational buttons include Advertisers, Articles, and Partners. Selection of the Advertisers button provides the user with the option to select a Contracts report page, a Leads report page, a Positions report page, or a Click Through report page. The Contracts report page provides a scroll list that allows the user to select an advertiser, after which a report is generated by the server that will list each contract for that advertiser, including contact information, the Ad Start Date, the Ad End Date, the URL of the advertisement, the articles in which the advertisement is placed (and the position therein), and, if desired the advertisement itself. An example of an Advertiser Contract Report is shown in FIG. 9.

The Leads report page allows the user to view and print registered readership by advertiser. Thus, by specifying the beginning and ending dates as well as the advertiser, the user will be provided with the appropriate data in report format. The report will list, for each article, the name, address, email, etc. for each user that has accessed that article.

The Positions report page allows the user to view and print advertisements and advertisement positions by advertiser and date. Thus, by entering the beginning date, end date, and desired advertiser, the user will obtain a report accordingly.

The Click Through report page provides the user with an Advertisement Click Count Report. This provides the user with counts of click-throughs from tracked links, articles and advertisements where the hyperlink was not entered in the article database but tracking was turned on at the link. The report will show the advertisement and number of click-throughs for a given date.

Selection of the Articles button provides the user with the option to select a Usage report page, an Activity report page, or a Leads report page. The Usage report page will provide a Comparative Article Usage Report, which will allow the user to view relative activity of each article or section of his site (or content ranked by activity). Thus, by entering a beginning date and an end date, and selecting a sort by article title or usage, the number of hits for each article is shown in bar graph format. An example of the Article Usage Report is shown in FIG. 10.

The Activity report page will provide an Article Activity and Statistics Report, which will allow the user to view article activity by number of registered users and nonregistered users, as well as by the number of people who used the used the print and email referral feature. Thus, by entering a beginning date and end date, each Article Title is shown along with the View Count, Print Count, Email Count (Known and Unknown) for each article.

The Article Leads report page allows the user to view and print registered readership by article. Thus, by specifying the beginning and ending dates as well as the article, the user will be provided with the appropriate data in report format. The report will list, for each article, the name, address, email, etc. for each user that has accessed that article.

Selection of the Partners button allows the user to access reports on Partner Activity and Partner Leads, which are similar to those set forth above.

The publishing management server comprises a database such as a SQL database or the like that includes various tables used to store information for the present invention. The tables are provided as follows:

Table Descriptions

Adartpos

This table contains the combined information about advertisements, articles, and positions. It allows the publishing of a particular advertisement in any number of articles, in any position therein, and in the case of banner (graphic) advertisements, the horizontal and vertical size as well as the border width.

Two specialized types of records are contained in this table. The first is the record containing information necessary to place an advertisement in a system generated table of contents by topic. The second is the information necessary to place an advertisement in a key word search.

FIG. 2 illustrates the data relationships and linkages between the various tables in the management server. In the figure, relationships are indicated by lines with arrowheads pointing from the parent table to the child table. On the line may be a label indicating the type of relationship as follows:

1. 1 to 1 indicates that there is one row in the child table for each row in the parent table.

2. 1 to N indicates that for each row in the parent table there can be none to any number of rows in the child table.The only columns shown on the diagram are the columns involved in relationships.

Two tables, ADARTPOS and USAGELOG, are the main tables for the system. ADARTPOS is the table that stores information about the placement of advertisements in the articles. It is driven by ADVERTS, ARTICLES, and POSITIONS. Each row contains data about an advertisement placement in an article in a particular position.

USAGELOG is where all activity tracked on the site is recorded. It is driven by the date and time, the subscriber, what the subscriber has requested or what article or advertisement has been displayed or clicked.

The rest of the tables provide a means of ensuring ADARTPOS can be filled correctly and USAGELOG contains useful information.

POSITIONS contain the English description of advertising positions, ARTICLES contain the title and ancillary information about articles the system manages, and ADVERTS contain the information necessary to display an advertisement.

ARTICLES may or may not have AUTHORS, but must have at least one TOPIC to be displayed in a table of contents. Some tracked articles will not have a topic because they are things like the table of contents itself or the home page.

ADVERTISERS may or may not have ADVERTS, but ADVERTS always have ADVERTISERS.

PARTNERS may or may not have restrictions on ARTICLES viewed when the system web site is entered with their source code, and may or may not have restrictions on ADVERTS for the same reason.

TOPICS may or may not have ADVERTS associated with them when a table of contents is displayed.

SUBSCRIBERS must have an PARTNER code. In addition, they may or may not have entries in the USAGELOG table.

It is important to note that FIG. 2 contains only the core tables necessary for running the system and that others, such as the KEYWORDS and KEYWORD advertising, CATALOG and it's related tables, and straight data verification tables (COUNTRY, PROVINCES) are not shown.

FIG. 3, relating to Initial Contact and Redirection, shows how the system reacts to contact through a browser. The system is contacted through two mechanisms: the first is with just the root web name and the second is with a passed source code.

Contacting via the root web name makes the system assume the default partner. For instance:http://www.info-now.comwill result in the default partner for info-now site and will redirect to the directory on the site that contains the documents for info-now.com.http://www.info-now.com/default.asp?source=MKCwill result in the Marketing Click site being displayed. Marketing Click is an internal partner, meaning that their content is on the same server.When the system is contacted, it looks for that source code. If there is none, it jumps to the default partner site. The default partner site is set up when the system is initially installed.

If there is a source code passed, checks to see if it's a valid one for that site. If it is, it jumps to that partner's content. If it isn't the system jumps to the default site's content.

In all cases, whichever source code the system decides the incoming request is from, it sets a cookie so that it doesn't have to check again.

With reference to FIG. 4, Advertising Display, one of the system's core functions is to display advertisements and make it possible to track them. Any article that has an advertisement will have at least one entry in the code itself similar to the following:<%=showad(“Banner Position 1”)5>This tag indicates that the advertisement placed in this article at Banner Position 1 should be retrieved and placed here in the document. The system takes this request and validates it for ARTICLE name (it exists and is active in the article table), POSITION (it is a valid position name), and finally that there has been an ADVERT assigned this position in this article in the ADARTPOS table.

If any error condition occurs, then an advertisement is not served and a diagnostic comment is written to the browser (not seen, except in ‘view source’ of the browser document). The system then checks to see that the file that creates the advertisement exists. If not, it writes a diagnostic comment to the browser.

If the advertisement file exists, it is served with whatever links and alternate information it can supply from the ADVERTS table. Then Press2Web™ writes the fact that someone (if known, their PIN number) has seen the advertisement in USAGELOG.

The result is that the person browsing the document sees an advertisement and the fact is recorded.

The flow logic for Click through recording is shown in FIG. 5. The click recording subsystem is the second major piece of the tracking system. Where the table of contents and advertisement display portions record what is passively seen, the click recording system records what has actively been done.

The system is called with a link in a document that can have two mutually exclusive parameters; an advertisement position key, and a URL.

In the event it is called with an advertisement position key, the system looks up in the ADARTPOS table for that key. It gathers all the information about the advertisement (advertiser ID, advertisement ID, where to go when clicked).

One feature is that a subscriber can be marked for not being recorded—their accesses are ignored. This is useful for subscribers that are owners or employees, or subscribers that have paid to not be recorded.

If the subscriber is known at this time, (they have logged in) and their ‘don't use’ flag is not set, the system will record their action as a click. If it is set, the system will just redirect the user to the URL gathered from the advertisement information.

If no advertisement position was passed, and a requested page was passed, the system will lookup the requested page in the ARTICLES table and determine if it represents an article that is tracked. If it is, and it requires a login, it will redirect the user to a page for logging in before calling itself again for processing.

If the system discovers that 1) the user is logged in and 2) the article requires a login OR the article doesn't require a login, it will record the appropriate information in USAGELOG and redirect the user to the new page.

If the system discovers that the requested page is not in the ARTICLES file, it will record the requested page in USAGELOG and redirect the user to the new page.

If neither an advertisement ID or requested page was passed, the system will display a diagnostic page. This will indicate that something is wrong and will indicate to the user what to do.

FIG. 6 shows the flow logic for Generating A Table of Contents. The table of contents tool (TOC tool) allows for the generation of a table of topics, and a table of contents that includes summaries for the articles as well as advertisements associated with topics.

First the TOC tool gathers all the topics from the TOPICS table that have active ARTICLES that can be viewed given the current user's partner code. The PT_ART_XREF table contains entries for articles that are NOT seen with the current partner code. The result is a set of topics for this partner that have articles to be displayed.

The system then displays the topics in a table as links to the summaries portion of the document.

The summaries portion of the document contains articles in alphabetic order by topic and title with their summaries and whatever advertisements are to be displayed in the table of contents.

Using the table generated at the beginning, the system gathers, by topic, all the article information necessary for creating links. It then generates the HTML code for displaying the information.

It should be noted that two things are true: If an article is assigned no topics, it will not show up in the TOC, and if it is assigned more than one topic, it will appear in more than one place.

If any advertisements are placed by topic, then the system will display them appropriately.